


A Time to Forge

by BryonNightshade



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Weiss tries to be a better person, filling in a gap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 05:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30050424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BryonNightshade/pseuds/BryonNightshade
Summary: Featuring Vol1-2 Weiss and Blake. It was no coincidence that Weiss had a pistol magazine with Dust in Gambol Shroud's caliber, any more than it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to trust Blake to defeat Torchwick. That kind of trust takes time and effort to build, though, and it was a rocky road getting there...
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Weiss Schnee
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	A Time to Forge

"That was such an amazing class!"

Weiss Schnee felt a mixture of disbelief and curiosity welling up within her. "Was it?"

"Of course!" gushed Ruby Rose. "Our first Beacon-level Armaments class! Wasn't it awesome?"

Weiss was still getting used to her teammates, a process made more difficult because there was so much _more_ to them than she'd expected. She kept having to revise her initial impressions, which were turning out to be disastrously wrong in many ways. It was quite irritating. Why couldn't people be simple? Or at least stay the same for a minute?

Here was another example. "You weren't this excited about Professor Port's class," Weiss pointed out.

Yang Xiao Long butted in, as was her wont. "That's because of Professor Port."

Weiss ignored the distraction. "And you fell asleep in Doctor Oobleck's history class."

"In my defense, I did stay up all night studying the night before," Ruby said. "And then woke up at the same time as usual…"

"And in Professor Peach's class…"

"Yes, I know, I have trouble paying attention in class!" exploded Ruby. "That's just how I am!"

"Except in Armaments," Weiss said.

Ruby's face changed, like she'd just been transported from Hell to Heaven in an instant.

Weiss glanced at Yang, who shrugged. "She's always been like this—cribbing off my old notes to get through some classes, correcting the instructors in anything to do with weapons."

Weiss rolled her eyes and led the way into the team's dorm. Ruby zipped past as soon as the door was open, ignoring Weiss' yell of protest. In the blink of an eye she had Crescent Rose unfolded and placed across one of the room's desks and was scanning it critically.

"Alright!" she declared, turning to the rest of the group. "Team-building activity, starting now!"

Weiss groaned aloud and looked to her teammates for support. Yang looked neutral, ready to follow the leader whether she liked it or not. That left Blake Belladonna. The taciturn fourth member of the team had a furtive look on her face; she looked even less enthusiastic about 'team-building activities' than Weiss.

"Let's put it to a vote," Weiss said.

"I haven't even said what it is yet!" Ruby protested.

"Okay, explain what we'll be voting against."

"Meanie," Ruby grumbled, but she didn't stay dismayed long. "We'll have a meet and greet with our weapons."

Weiss heard all the words, but they didn't fit together in her head. "What?"

"We've met each other in business and social settings," Ruby said. "But we've only met each other's weapons in action! Well, now we can fix that. We can show each other our weapons and talk about them."

"Isn't that… awfully personal?" Blake said, speaking up for the first time.

"Yes, exactly," Weiss said, and she almost missed Blake's look of shock that she and Weiss agreed on something. "Our swords are our souls. I think you're being a bit brazen."

"We're teammates now," insisted Ruby. "We're _supposed_ to be getting to know each other on that level. Besides, think how much better we'll be able to work as a team if we know everything each other can do!"

It was alien language to Weiss. Leaning on another person? Weiss had only ever been able to depend on herself—and Winter, but Winter was never there anymore. Weiss glanced again at Blake. Blake wasn't speaking, but Weiss knew that body language. It screamed "Don't look at me, don't find me, I don't want this". It was body language all the Schnee children had used—and discarded when it proved ineffective.

What _was_ effective was a good counterattack. "I don't think so," Weiss said. "Let's put it to a vote. All against?" She raised her hand instantly. Blake's followed after some hesitation. Weiss looked expectantly at Yang, but the blonde only grinned, and kept her hand stubbornly low.

"All in favor?" Ruby called, her own hand up before she even finished speaking. Yang's joined her.

"Tie, two to two," Weiss said conclusively. "Motion fails."

"Two-and-a-half to two," Ruby said, a gleam in her eye. "I'm the leader, so my vote breaks ties."

Weiss scoffed. "That's not how this works! I never agreed to this!"

"At least we got to vote," Blake muttered, seemingly to herself.

"And what were you thinking?" Weiss demanded of Yang.

"I was thinking she won't shut up about weapons until you indulge her. Trust me, I know."

Weiss threw her hands in the air. "Fine! Fine! Let's get this over with!"

"Perfect!" exclaimed Ruby. She whipped her scythe off the table, scattering papers without a second thought. "This is Crescent Rose, a variable-geometry scythe and high-impact, customizable sniper rifle. She is my pride and joy."

"You don't say," Weiss said drily.

"Give them the short version," said Yang, already looking bored. Well, Weiss thought, the elder sister had undoubtedly had to sit through this before.

"Right," said Ruby, abashed. However abashed she was didn't stop her from spending the next ten minutes gushing about all the properties of her weapon.

"…and I spent the last year bringing her up to spec for firing all manner of Dust rounds!" she said. "I can fire all the major types of weaponized Dust now—Ice, Fire, Lightning, even Gravity!"

That seemed to catch Blake's attention. Weiss saw a hungry look come over her teammate's face—but it faded as quickly as it had come, replaced with a sort of bitterness.

"My next big project is to increase the variable geometry of the head to give me more angles of attack, if I can figure out a way to do it without increasing the weight or making the meka-shift assembly too fragile… Weiss' turn!" Ruby declared. Weiss' thoughts of Blake were interrupted by the sudden appearance of the leader's face blocking all of Weiss' vision.

"Right," said Weiss, taking a large step backwards to give herself breathing room. She drew her weapon and adopted her most formal tone. "This is Myrtenaster, a multi-action Dust rapier. It is capable of holding and channeling not only all forms of Dust, but all _combinations_ of Dust, using the rotary selector in the hilt."

Blake's expression had turned sour. Weiss could barely see it behind Ruby clapping her hands together in exuberance. "Wow," said Ruby, "even all combinations? The metallurgy that had to go into that, to let it handle all those types but still be strong as a weapon…"

"Was expensive, yes," Weiss said, "but totally worth it."

"Conspicuous consumption."

Weiss' eyes snapped to Blake, who appeared shocked that she'd spoken aloud. "What was that?" Weiss demanded.

Blake met Weiss' eyes, and seeing Weiss seemed to harden something in Blake. "I said, it's conspicuous consumption," she repeated.

"Yeaaaaah, I don't know what that means," said Ruby.

"It means she's just showing off how rich she is."

"No she's not!" said Ruby before Weiss could defend herself, and Weiss was so surprised by the pronouncement she hadn't recovered when Ruby spoke again. "It's totally practical for that kind of weapon! If we could make more weapons out of these alloys, we absolutely would, it's just overkill for most people and we can't afford it anyway!"

Blake wilted before Ruby's words, but she still managed to shoot a dirty look at Weiss. "Must be nice."

"Yes, it is," said Weiss defiantly. She held Blake's gaze, determined not to back down. In her peripheral vision, she noticed Ruby looking back and forth between her teammates with increasing agitation. Ha! And she _should_ be agitated when Weiss was under att—

"Hey, look, it's a newspaper!"

Weiss blinked and looked at Yang; Ruby and Blake did, too. Yang was grinning incorrigibly. She pointed at Blake. "Because it's black—" she pointed at Weiss, "and white—" at Ruby, "and _read_ all over!"

Blake and Weiss both cringed. Ruby sighed. "How long have you been saving that joke?"

"From the instant they made us Team RWBY," Yang said, looking so satisfied it made Weiss nauseous. "When I saw this color combo, I knew I'd be dropping that one eventually."

"Are you done?" said Ruby.

"I'll never stop, if that's what you mean, but I can be done for now," Yang said. "I think we were on to Blake?"

Weiss opened her mouth to protest, but Ruby had zoomed over to Blake. "Oh, I've been wanting to see this! You've gotta show me!"

Weiss felt a surge of annoyance rising in her, and it was so surprising she had to stop and think about it, even if that meant missing the discussion of Blake's weapon—which, she had to admit, was an interesting design.

After considering, Weiss decided she was annoyed because they didn't talk about Myrtenaster as much. Ruby had gone on about Crescent Rose for so very long. Weiss hadn't gotten her due. Yes, that was it.

"…this form also lets me shoot the pistol."

"Wow," gushed Ruby. "That's a really neat idea! Is the pistol Dust-rated?"

"N-no." Blake's eyes, seemingly involuntarily, flicked over to Weiss.

"That's fine," said Ruby easily, voice empty of the judgement Weiss felt. "Yang's weapons can't use Dust, either, other than your normal propellant."

"But I want to," Blake said. "I know how useful Dust is. It's just… that's a major project. I'd have to do a lot of research to do it right."

"Ugh, tell me about it!" said Ruby with a groan. "When I first made Crescent Rose I didn't know how to do that metalwork, I had to go back afterwards and replace the firing chamber. That was a pain." She smiled brightly. "But if you need some help, just let me know!"

That made Blake draw back in surprise. "Of course," she said, though her words and tone were at odds.

"Alright, on to Yang!" said Ruby.

Yang gave an aww-shucks wave. "You already know everything there is to know about Ember Celica. Why don't you do the meet-and-greet for me?"

"Can I?" said Ruby, as if she could scarcely believe this good fortune.

"Go for it."

"Alright! This is Ember Celica, a set of dual-range shot gauntlets…"

* * *

Weiss made a hobby of watching her teammates' study habits. Yang, to Weiss' surprise, had outstanding habits and a very regular regimen. She performed well across the board. Weiss wondered if Yang could do even better if she fully committed to it, but Yang brushed off this suggestion with talk of diminishing returns and something about a "socially adjusted GPA". (Weiss' was apparently quite low.)

Ruby's first week was a disaster. Weiss soon learned that Ruby's interest in studying waxed and waned with both her moods and her interest in the subject matter. She'd probably skated by in Combat School with all of her extracurricular training and (Weiss had to admit) sheer smarts. That didn't work at Beacon. Not only was the material harder, but Ruby had skipped two grades and so was missing a lot of baseline knowledge. It was only after several poor performances, and some emotional moments between the partners, that Ruby came to terms with her predicament.

Her overall effort got much better, but it still came and went. Weiss tried to give Ruby a study schedule similar to her own. That lasted all of two days before another blow up, a barely-passing grade on an Oobleck pop quiz, and the frustrated destruction of several target dummies.

After more discussions (and some surprisingly keen insight from Yang), they came up with a fuzzier schedule. There were more study periods on it, but instead of specifying which subject to study when and which periods were breaks, there was a goal per subject: "Two by the end of the week", and the like. Weiss had worried that Ruby would use this as an excuse to slack off and leave all the studying to the end, but she didn't. Instead, she was liberated to follow her fancies of the moment and pursue whichever ideas were in her head at the time.

Weiss still didn't know how Ruby had thought to decapitate a giant Nevermore with a glyph-powered slingshot, but she was starting to see the shape of the mind that had come up with the idea.

Then there was Blake.

Blake was a gluttonous reader, and not only for her… questionable choices in recreational fiction. (To be fair, Weiss suspected that some of Blake's books 'made the rounds' across the team, and possibly into the JNPR dorm as well.) Blake wasn't as organized as Weiss or Yang, but she made up for it with effort that eclipsed them all.

So much so it was frightening at times.

Blake, it transpired, was as prone to fixation as Ruby was to flights of fancy. In their third week, Blake poured an enormous amount of time and skull sweat into an assignment for Professor Oobleck. She got one of the top grades in the class… and immediately bombed a quiz from Professor Peach and just scraped a pass on one of Professor Port's projects.

This repeated itself two weeks later. Weiss asked Yang about it. Yang agreed it was a problem, and confided to Weiss that she'd been working on ways to pull Blake out of these holes she dug for herself. It was proving difficult.

Still, Weiss had to admire the effort. Blake had a level of drive and commitment that was rare. Weiss could appreciate that.

She approached Blake one night intending to congratulate her on this quality. When she found the taller girl, she was buried in metallurgy and materials references.

Weiss sighed. "Is it happening again?"

"Is what happening?" Blake said sharply.

"Are you doing that thing where you get so hung up on a topic you forget that sleep and food are mandatory, not optional?"

"I have work to do."

Weiss crossed her arms.

"Which I will continue to do."

Weiss raised her eyebrows.

"As soon as you leave."

"Going that well, is it?" said Weiss.

Blake shoved one of her stacks of books. They crashed across the table. "Yes, it's going wonderfully, Miss Myrtenaster, now please get out and give me some space to concentrate."

Weiss had faced far worse tempers than Blake Belladonna's. She looked down at the books and thought about what Blake had just said. "You're working on your upgrade to Gambol Shroud, then?"

Surprise spread on Blake's face. Embarrassment chased it. "What if I am?"

"Why?"

The anger flared again. "What makes it your business?"

Weiss gave a put-upon sigh, exaggerated for effect. (A Schnee had eight different sighs, to go with six different frowns and twelve different smiles.) "According to Ruby, teammates are each others' business."

As she'd hoped, bringing up Ruby took the focus off Weiss. Blake's eyes went out of focus. "Teammates," she murmured. "That's… something."

Weiss waited, wondering where Blake's head was at. When she finally spoke, it was with utmost caution. "Dust is useful. I've seen it used in some… effective ways. It could come in handy."

Weiss recognized the quivering and hesitation. It reminded her of when her father's employees had to bring him bad news. They chose their words with fear, trying to avoid setting off an explosion.

What, Weiss wondered, made Blake look at her like that?

"Hey, I'm not your boss, I'm not trying to get you in trouble," Weiss said. "I'm just curious."

Blake gave Weiss a keen look. "More Dust users would be better for sales, wouldn't it?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "One more Dust user here or there? That's a rounding error."

"Of course," said Blake, her expression hardening. "I forgot how impersonal the Ess Dee Cee is."

"If you have so many problems with my family's company, then why do you want to use its product?"

"I want to use Dust how it's supposed to be used," said Blake.

"Funny thing," shot back Weiss. "Me too."

Unexpectedly, they found themselves matching eyes again, contentiously. There was hostility in Blake's eyes, and Weiss gave as good as she got.

"Anyway," said Weiss without looking away, "you're going about this all wrong."

"Oh, am I?" said Blake, half-snarling.

"Yes, you are," Weiss replied flippantly. She picked up one of the books on the table. "This is an old edition. It's been superseded. And that one doesn't focus on weaponry, it doesn't have anything that would help you."

"So that's what this is all about," said Blake, flushing furiously. Did her bow… twitch? "The Ess Dee Cee heiress, come down on tour to laugh at the f… fools."

"You are a fool, but not for the reason you think. If you wanted to do this right, you'd have started by talking to Ruby."

Blake, still blushing, frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Weren't you paying attention? Ruby's already done what you're doing now. She built that weed whacker of hers to fire normal ammunition, then retrofitted it to handle Dust ammo. Isn't that what you're trying to do? And haven't you seen her grades in our Armaments classes? If you wanted to do this right, you'd get her to help you."

Blake looked like she was cycling through replies. Weiss was becoming impatient when her teammate finally chose one. "It's my business," she mumbled.

"Don't be stubborn and accept my help," Weiss said.

Blake recoiled. " _You're_ telling _me_ don't be stubborn?"

"Of course," said Weiss. "Isn't that why they put us in teams? So we could learn to help each other?"

"No, it's to indoctrinate us into hierarchical systems. That way we follow orders when told."

That brought Weiss to a halt. "That… had not occurred to me."

Blake shrugged. "You're from Atlas, and you grew up in high society. You're already wired for hierarchy."

Weiss took a deep breath and spoke deliberately. "It has become increasingly clear to me that I have blind spots. You have different ones. It might be useful for you to point out mine when you see them."

That flabbergasted Blake. "Seriously?"

"But!" Weiss said, raising a finger. "In return, you must go to Ruby to get help."

Blake relaxed. "There it is. That's the transactional thinking I'd expect from you."

"Well, you weren't doing it because I was being nice, so I had to escalate."

"Who's to say Ruby will help?"

"Ha! Ruby? Get involved with a weapons project? You'll have to pry her away."

Blake regarded Weiss for a moment. "Fine," she sighed. "I'll go see Ruby."

"But not tonight," said Weiss. "You forget: _I_ set Ruby's study schedule. I'll get you a session later this week." She gave Blake her sharpest look. "After you get a few nights' decent sleep."

"Why does my sleep matter to y-y…"

Blake had begun to surge to her feet, but she seemed to get woozy and lose her balance halfway through the process. She staggered, staying upright only by grabbing the table.

"Insufficient sleep and dehydration," Weiss noted. "You are not taking care of yourself, Blake Belladonna. As for why I care? It's enlightened self-interest. You can't watch my back if you're delirious. Your team will help you, even if you won't help yourself."

It seemed to take forever for Blake to judge those words before accepting them. "Okay. I just hope you don't regret this."

"Why would I?" said Weiss, curious.

"Why indeed," Blake said cryptically as she started to stack the books up. "I'll drop these off at the front desk."

Weiss held her ground.

"And then I'll come to bed."

"See that you do."

As Weiss left, she distinctly heard Blake mutter, "I guess there are advantages to being a sociopath."

* * *

As anyone could have predicted, Ruby was psyched to get involved with Blake's project. The others could tell that, if it weren't for the aura infusions that were necessary for a Huntress to make a weapon truly hers, Ruby would have made the new firing chamber and barrel herself.

As it was, Ruby helped Blake find the right resources, guided her through making the plans, then set her up with Beacon's forgemaster for the actual crafting. It was almost, Weiss reflected, like Ruby could be a team leader when she wanted to be.

Blake's study habits began to moderate some. She consented to being pulled away by Yang on weekends to do "partner things", whatever that meant. Her grades evened out, which meant that Team RWBY's overall academic performance was top in their year. Weiss casually mentioned this detail in one of her letters to her sister.

("As is to be expected, no team is able to compete with us academically. I am at or near the top of the class in every subject, and I have seen to it that my teammates are, too. It's honestly hard to tell if the other teams are dullards or if we're simply that exceptional, although I'm leaning towards the latter.")

She thought Winter would be impressed with her modesty.

Blake forged the upgrades to her weapon, integrated them, and placed her first order of Dust with Beacon's logistician.

Then, the White Fang argument.

Then, Blake vanished.

* * *

How was Blake going to use that upgraded weapon?

What had she meant about using Dust "the way it's supposed to be used"?

When she said that she'd seen Dust used "in some effective ways", was she talking about the SDC's Dust-based weaponry? Or was that the secret behind the White Fang's destructiveness?

They were troubling thoughts. The possibility that Weiss had helped put a powerful weapon in the hands of the enemy…

Was Blake the enemy, though?

She'd had plenty of chances to kill Weiss in her sleep if she was truly insane, or a crazed fanatic, or in a blood feud with the SDC. Instead, she'd stuck with it.

Stuck with it even when her body language and her word choice and her tone indicated she loathed the SDC and hated it and _feared_ it, and Weiss, the avatar of the SDC, was right there in her room.

She had responded when Weiss had reached out to her. Sure, Weiss had done so in ignorance, but she'd still done it, and she'd reached something in Blake. Something in Blake reached back. Blake tried when Weiss tried.

Maybe she should try some more.

* * *

In the end, she decided that, no, Blake was not the enemy. She was a teammate. She deserved far more than just the benefit of the doubt.

She came to that conclusion _before_ Blake was picked up for anti-White Fang vigilantism, which, frankly, was the sort of nonsense she would have expected from Yang first of all, but which was also reassuring in its way. If Blake was going after the White Fang alone and in secret, it wasn't any sort of demonstration or posturing. It was from a depth of belief.

That resonated with Weiss.

It was also stupid, which she made sure to point out to Blake, but yes, reassuring.

And yet more of Weiss' preconceptions came crashing to the ground…

* * *

To her immense surprise, Weiss began to appreciate her teammates.

She was relieved and impressed to discover that Ruby had some self-awareness. She understood that being a heroine was more than just wishful thinking or a fantasy, but something that had to be achieved through hard work. Somehow, underneath all the flighty trappings and the occasional air-headedness and the naivete, there was a core of adamant.

She realized that Yang didn't just tell jokes because they amused her, but also to break tense moments, put people at ease, and reset conversations. As brutish as Yang was, she turned out to be almost too good at reading Weiss' emotions, and she was capable of great subtlety and timing. Freezerburn would've been impossible if Yang were as simple as Weiss had thought.

And Blake? Blake finally began to reveal a dry wit as clever and cutting as anything Weiss could dish out. Her skittishness and fear slowly faded. Weiss discovered that, whatever she professed to the contrary, they had surprisingly similar tastes in literature. And, after much dancing around the issue and avoiding things and awkwardness, she finally asked if she could touch Blake's faunus ears… and Blake allowed it.

The semester break came upon them in a rush. When the team re-gathered, Weiss found some time to chat with Blake.

"How did the modifications to Gambol Shroud go?" she asked.

"Well, it's all in working order," said Blake, "and I've tested it with ice and fire Dust."

"That's all?" Weiss said, frowning. "I was sure you'd designed it to handle more types than that."

"I did, but… I'm trying to be careful with my Dust budget." Blake became bashful again.

"None of that," Weiss said firmly. "Teammates speak honestly to each other, right? Like when you told me that the SDC operation in southern Anima ran on trafficked faunus, and I didn't believe you and blew up, but you said you were right, and lo and behold you were?"

That took Blake aback. "Wait, you—"

"Changed my mind when confronted with evidence? Yes, Blake, of course, that's what a rational person does."

"If that's true, there aren't many rational people in this world."

"Well, naturally I'd be one of them," said Weiss, crossing her arms and preening.

Blake winced. "I did not mean to make you more insufferable."

"You're trying to distract me now. Are you saying you haven't tested all types of Dust with your new all-types-of-Dust weapon?"

Blake girded herself before responding. "That takes time and money, and I don't have enough of either."

Weiss looked at her teammate's face and saw the shadows beneath her eyes. "I see you're sacrificing sleep for time, again."

"I can handle it," Blake said firmly.

"Hmph. And you mean to tell me you can't afford more Dust ammunition? I thought Beacon subsidizes those things."

"Up to a certain amount a semester," said Blake. "Upgrading Gambol blew most of my budget. And I burn through a lot of ammunition in class and… outside of class." The bow on Blake's head made a subtle twitch, which Weiss now understood to mean her ears were trying to betray some emotion. "Plus, I've been stocking up. I want to have a reserve of a certain size handy. I haven't reached that goal with standard rounds yet, let alone Dust rounds that come at a premium."

"I see." Weiss pursed her lips as she tried to put her thoughts in order. "Can I ask you something?"

"You already have, but one more won't hurt."

"When you said you wanted to use Dust the way it was supposed to be used, what did you mean?"

Blake took her time in answering. "I guess I meant… the way you use it."

The words did not compute. "I beg your pardon?"

Blake shifted uncomfortably. "I've seen a lot of the ways the Ess Dee Cee uses Dust. They range from frivolous to horrible. But that's not how you use it. You have access to enough that you could just fritter it away. Instead, you're trying to use it to help people. That's what I want, too."

"Well, I did say that," Weiss said, a little cross.

"I know you did," said Blake, still discomfited. "But it took a while before I… believed you."

Her gaze firmed as she looked at Weiss properly. "I do now."

The words struck Weiss. They were uncommonly nice. She struggled to find a worthy compliment to pay in turn. "Blake, you are a rational person."

Blake favored her with one of her precious, rare smiles. "I appreciate that," she said, and Weiss heard honesty in her voice.

Weiss returned the smile with trained grace. "Now, we should find the rest of the team before Yang gets ideas."

Blake's face was puzzled. "What kind of ideas?"

"…never mind."

* * *

"Ruby? What caliber is Gambol?"

Ruby rattled off the answer instantly, instinctively—then paused. "Why do you want to know?"

Weiss shrugged with affected nonchalance. "No reason."

"Enlightened self-interest?"

Weiss' nonchalance broke. "How did you know…?"

"I do pay attention," Ruby said, flipping a page in the book she was studying. "Even if I needed Yang to explain what that phrase meant. So, buying ammunition for Blake?"

"Of course," said Weiss, crossing her arms. "If I don't, she'll likely use something substandard because it's cheap. Substandard ammunition is too often defective, and I will not allow my teammates to suffer from other people's failings."

"That's not the same as enlightened self-interest."

Weiss' brow furrowed. "And… she earned it."

Ruby looked up at Weiss for several long seconds. Weiss was struck, all over again, at how much power was in those silver eyes. They stared down hardened criminals, sighted along scopes, and did a puppy impression Weiss had never seen resisted. This time, they made Weiss feel like she was being x-rayed.

"By reforging Gambol Shroud?" Ruby asked shrewdly. "Or some other way?"

"What do you think?" Weiss asked.

The moment passed. Ruby's face lit up in a smile. "You really are the best teammate!"

Weiss set her hair swinging as she turned away. "Of course I am," she shot over her shoulder. But she smiled all the same, and the smile stayed long after she left.

* * *

"Just in time," Weiss said to herself as she cracked open the case. The Dust shipments she received from home were normally quite regular. This one was intolerably late.

There wasn't much time left before they were supposed to go to the amphitheater. There, they'd get a speech from Ozpin, then start their training mission. They were supposed to be ready by now, but this Dust shipment was holding her up.

Then again, Ruby wasn't back from… wherever she'd been called. Maybe Weiss had a moment?

She'd already topped off Myrtenaster's Dust stores, but this shipment would replenish her reserves. She began taking containers of Dust from the case.

"Hey, I got a package, too," said Yang from behind Weiss. "Wonder what's in it."

Weiss didn't respond, too preoccupied with her own task. Inspecting the seals of these containers took her full attention. Presumably they were fine, since they'd just come across continents… but you could never be too sure. One Ruby-splosion was enough.

She lifted the partition in the case and was surprised at what lay beneath. That… that wasn't one of her usual…

Oh!

The pistol magazines had come in. Weiss smiled to herself. One each of dedicated Fire, Lightning, Ice, and Stone rounds, plus one variety pack. She grabbed the variety pack, ready to talk to Blake about it—but at that moment Ruby walked in. "So, that was a thing," she said.

"What was?" asked Yang.

"The headmasters called me in to talk about the break-in."

"They what?" said Blake, surging forward.

Weiss pocketed the magazine, the better to listen to Ruby recount her interview with Ozpin and Ironwood.

Between that and the subsequent appearance of Zwei, all thoughts of pistol magazines left her mind.

* * *

"Zwei?"

Weiss tried to drag herself into wakefulness. Blake was quicker to rouse; she was already standing and asking what was going on.

"Grab your weapons," said Professor Oobleck. "Your leader may be in trouble."

Despite the long day, the insufficient sleep, and the rude awakening, Weiss' mind snapped into motion. If Ruby was in trouble, they needed every asset to help her. Good thing she'd already topped off Myrtenaster with every type of Dust…

Every type of Dust!

The others were racing out of the ruin, following a yelping Zwei. Weiss reached for her backpack and drew the pistol magazine she'd put there for safekeeping. She'd need to find a good moment to give it to Blake.

* * *

There were no good moments. There were only bad moments. Why were there only ever bad moments?

But if there were no good moments, there was certainly a last moment.

"I guess this is what we trained for," said Yang, as they looked ahead into a train full of unknown terrors and one too-well-known enemy in charge.

"Here, this should help you," Weiss said, extending her hand.

Blake's eyes widened at the sight of the pistol magazine. Weiss was putting the finest product of the SDC in the hands of a faunus. For the briefest moment, their gazes met.

 _I trust you with this as my teammate and friend_ , Weiss' eyes said.

Blake's eyes answered. _I'll use it like Dust is meant to be used._

_I know you will._

Blake took the magazine.

Loaded it.

Weiss smiled.

* * *

_End._


End file.
